The Misery of Aonach Mor

The end of January is nearly always reserved for mountaineering up in the highlands of Scotland. Previous years we’ve spent time in the Cairngorms skiing around Ben Macdui and ice climbing on the North face of the Ben (Ben Nevis).

This year was was a little different. As usual, the weeks before any trip I’m scouting through the mountain weather forecasts, what was odd about this year was the lack of snowfall and the mild weather. As the days went by I grew more & more concerned over the weather conditions, all webcams showing seriously soggy marshland. All hopes of getting some decent skiing in went out the window. So onto the mountain accent route planning.

I was completing the route with my girlfriend Sam who usually puts up with any route I lay in front of her. I'm not sure whether this is through enjoyment or whether she uses these days to bag a groom for future days out with her horses!

Aonach Mor was on the cards. The Nevis range gondola takes you from near sea level to 650m. There is an argument that it is against ethics to take shortcuts up the mountain. However, Sam did have a re-occurring knee niggle so it was wise to start higher given the circumstances, and well...... bollocks to the ethics, I’m on holiday!

I was extremely concerned with the wind forecast, some sites were suggesting gusts coming SW of over 90mph on the summit. While the summit is more of a plateau than a point I was confident we could slowly observe the weather on our ascent rather than being caught out, there was reservations on whether we could remain in control high up especially if icy. We set onto the route without much hope of reaching the summit. A depressing view I know, but overly optimistic and gun go outlooks in these conditions can prove to be a detriment & possibly fatal.

3 minutes after getting off the gondola.... it definitely didn’t feel like a holiday. I’m over cumbered with ropes, rock protection, stove, every jacket I pretty much own (if you’ve been on a Munro in Scottish winter, you’d understand why). With the super mild temperatures on the hills this year I was sweating straight away, slightly cautious of this matter following my recent mistake on Ygarn I slowed down slightly and enjoyed the walk on the hill. We made a line onto the east edge called Aonach an Nid. There was some enjoyable rock scrambling to be had here rather than trudging on thick heather.

40 mins passed on the edge & the wind certainly came into play. My face stung on the right hand side. Looking back at Sam I seen that she wasn't feeling the cold weather at all.... neither was I, Snow and wind, fine, rain and wind is pure misery. I tried to re-assure Sam with optimism on how far we came which was met with scepticism as I mentioned the same amount of kms to go at two separate points 20 mins apart, she didn't believe me, I didn't either!! There was one good point we found which was the winter wonderland of looking down the east face at the corniced edge and white slopes. Short-lived as I didn't want to hang about there with the prevailing wind.

The last ski tow station was upon us which signalled the start of the summit plateau, we quickly took stock on whether we should push on up & whether we took a break for a sandwich here, we opted to push on up & sad to say "get it out of the way". thankful that we had completed the ascent and the lack of snow cover for this time of year, I could now concentrate on orienteering & monitoring the wind as we travelled the last kilometre to the summit cairn. After 10 minutes of walking GPS showed that we was less than 200m from the summit cairn. I tried to go live on Facebook on the walk in however the wind that was howling up the west gulley made holding a phone and walking an unacceptable risk to take, so I abandoned the idea.

Another summit bagged! underwhelming considering the lack of views and the struggle to battle on up the mountain with unused mountain equipment. I could see Sam was severely cold at this point, i donated my Gore-Tex hat & sorted her hoods out and we made tracks to get out of the wind and onto the North slopes. To make navigation easy I opted to get to the highest ski tow station and follow the cables down (the ski area was closed due to lack of snow) i found this route a good idea as there was still a lot of snow built up on these lines which was easy to punch heel tracks into and a softer route for Sams knee niggle.

40mins of trudging down these lines seen us to the ski centre. We shot down as quick as possible and got our soggy clothes off our backs. next stop, the pub!!

I could imagine this route to be a great summers day our and also a good line for some one starting out into winter mountaineering with its accessibility. There's also a lot of gully climbs on either side of Aonach More which got my attention that I'd love to try Unfortunately, the weather this year was against us. Thats Scottish winter for you :)

Good Parts

• Very accessible from the gondola

• Impressive views on the summits (i can imagine).

• interesting gullies up either flank of the summit plateu.

• Easy route-finding

Bad parts

• Cost of the gondola

• The plateu is exposed in high winds.

• Corniced edges in winter conditions.

Useful links Route Map

https://explore.osmaps.com/en/route/11330419/BM-mountains--Aonach-Mor Local weather https://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Aonach-Mor/forecasts/1221 Parking

https://w3w.co/emails.command.bibs